Earlier, at his daily meeting, Emanuel was feted by his staff – and given a dead Asian Carp, wrapped in Chicago daily newspapers by Obama economic adviser Austen Goolsbee, a reference to the dead fish Emanuel once delivered to a Democratic operative as a joke.

Yet even the fish had a Chicago hook – the carp is an invasive species that has invaded the waterways around Chicago and Emanuel has been obsessed with finding a way to eradicate it, according to administration aides.